Monthly Archives: February 2009

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Note: I’m off today but I’ve post-dated these threads to publish even though I’m nowhere near the Pasadena area. Have at it and knock yourselves out.

Time for you to give a crack at the preseason top 10 polls. State your case for the best team to earn a spot in the front page next week when our softball preview runs. Who is the area’s best team? Best pitcher, etc..

Note: I’m off today but I’ve post-dated these threads to publish even though I’m nowhere near the Pasadena area. Have at it and knock yourselves out.

Time for you to give a crack at the preseason top 10 polls. State your case for the best team to earn a spot in the front page next week when our softball preview runs. Who is the area’s best team? Best pitcher, etc..

This is your old pal Fred J sneaking in on Miguel because frankly, it’s a lazy day so I thought I would share our Just Tribbin with you. BTW, what’s happening with basketball in Pasadena? Only two boys teams (RHP, La Salle) left in the second week? No Pasadena? No La Canada? No Renaissance Academy? Muir just average? That’s not how I remember it. Hope you have something left for the all-star game, the Trib could have its best team ever.
A few weeks back I mentioned that CIF’s new basketball playoff structure, merging enrollment with competitive value, waters-down the importance of league play. Eric Sondheimer touched on it today in the L.A. Times, there could be three to four section champions from the same league, making you wonder if they need league’s anymore. You might as well just play a schedule, have more tournaments and do everything by enrollment. The Sierra League is looking the strongest around here with Chino Hills, Glendora, Ayala, and Damien alive in three separate divisions. By some miracle should the Sierra wind up with three CIF champions, how would you feel about it? Damien is a prime example. I’m fine with the fact that a fourth-place team can get an at-large, but to win a championship you should have to go through the teams that beat you in league to do it. Don’t get me wrong, I hope they all with section titles, but the system doesn’t sit right.

We can throw tantrums and tell everyone who will listen about how unjustly we were treated, but in the end we have to live with the end result and hope it doesn’t happen again.

When mistakes are made we hope those responsible will offer an apology. It won’t rectify the situation, but at the very least provides closure.

That’s what Blair High School boys basketball coach Gamal Smalley wants from the CIF-Southern Section after learning last week the at-large selection committee left the Vikings out of the playoffs.

Twelve teams were given at-large berths in Division IV-A. Eleven of them finished with sub.-500 records. Blair, which had a winning record of 13-10, finished fourth in the Rio Hondo League at 4-6.

The tournament seeding committee utilizes the following in its selection process for at-large berths: head-to-head competition of teams under consideration; overall strength of the league in which the team participates; overall won/loss record; league finish and strength at end of the season (whether team has lost its last three games or won its last three games, et al).

Blair played none of the 12 at-large teams, so head-to-head competition is thrown out.

Blair’s Rio Hondo League had four teams with records above .500. The top three teams finished 19-7, 18-7 and 16-9. By comparison, Santa Ynez and Morro Bay had only one team in its league finish with a .500 record or better.

In league finishes, Notre Dame was seventh with a 1-13 record; Rim of the World fourth; Santa Ynez sixth and Morro Bay fifth.

Strength at end of the season? Blair lost four of its last nine games; Santa Ynez lost eight of its last nine; Notre Dame lost 15 of its last 17 and Rim of the World lost nine of its last 13.

Smalley certainly makes a good argument as to why the Vikings should have been given an at-large berth.

Is it possible the selection committee made a mistake?

Yes.

Is it likely it will admit the mistake and give Blair a sense of closure?

Pasadena High School’s boys basketball team turned the ball over numerous times in the first quarter. Then it shot itself in the foot in the second.

Long Beach Poly’s stingy defense blanked the Bulldogs in the first quarter, leading the Jackrabbits to a 51-43 win Friday night in the second round of the CIF-Southern Section Division II-A playoffs.

Pasadena (22-6) appeared dazed and confused in the first quarter and its offense never got into rhythm despite many good looks at the hoop.

And just when it appeared the Bulldogs were gaining momentum in the second quarter, Pasadena’s Darius Johnson drew a technical foul for taunting the home student section after nailing a 3-pointer and pulling Pasadena to within 25-12 with 2:32 left in the first half.

Bulldogs coaches Tim Tucker and Marcus Ford were visibly upset with the drawing of the technical, since it swung the momentum back to the Jackrabbits (23-5).

“Well I don’t know if that’s a technical,” said Tucker, who completed his 13th year at the helm. “He puts up a 3 for knocking down a 3 and, like he said, he’s been doing that all year. All of a sudden you go on the road and in CIF and it’s a technical foul.

“That was a big 3, and although they missed the free throws, they got the ball back and took away our celebration and big moment and put us back down again.”

Pasadena didn’t help itself by turning the ball over 11 times in the first half, many of them resulting in easy buckets for Long Beach Poly.

The Bulldogs were stymied midway through the first quarter, where they came away empty on eight consecutive possessions. It was then, with less than a minute left in the first quarter, that it appeared Pasadena might actually go scoreless in the first quarter. And it did.

Joe Henson, the 6-foot-9 senior headed to San Jose State, was sent to the line with 18.4 seconds left and a chance to put the Bulldogs on the scoreboard. But he missed both free throws and the Jackrabbits ended on a 9-0 run.

Signs of frustration set in early for Pasadena. When Tyler Barber vigorously attempted to go inside he was called for a traveling violation. Out of frustration, Barber threw the ball against the wall, and though the Poly coaching staff protested to the referees that they should call a technical foul, they didn’t.

But frustration got the better part of Johnson, a senior captain who finished with five points. When he picked up his fifth foul with 47.3 seconds left in the game, he walked out of the gym momentarily. And when the final buzzer came, Johnson grabbed a chair and threw it out onto the court, much to the dismay of Tucker, who demanded that Johnson retrieve the chair and place it back where it was.

Long Beach Poly led by as many as 20 points. The Jackrabbits were led by junior guard Shelton Boykin, who finished with 11 points.

Pasadena got to within 10 points, but by then there was less than 40 seconds left.

“All season long our defense has been a staple,” Long Beach Poly coach Sharrief Metoyer said.

This was Pasadena’s third consecutive second-round exit. They won a CIF title in 2007.

Henson couldn’t shake loose from the smaller and slower Julian Camper in the post. Camper pestered him inside with his heavy frame and Henson finished with 10 points. George Toyama finished with a game-high 18 points.

“You can’t come out and be cold in the first quarter,” Tucker said. “They’re too good for that. We threw the ball away too much and we gave them easy baskets, and if you take away the easy baskets it’s a hell of a game.

“We made a good run in the end. If we had one more quarter we might have gotten them, but the first quarter comes back to haunt you.”

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